


The Treble With Going Solo

by avearia



Series: Phic Phight 2019 [6]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Hauntedjoanns, Musical Instruments, Phic Phight 2019, Prompt Fic, Secrets, TEAM PHANTOM - Freeform, Team Bonding, Tucker appreciation, tbh Tucker needs more love, thotvevo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23382808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avearia/pseuds/avearia
Summary: Prompt: Tucker becomes inexplicably busy after school and when he usually joins Danny and Sam on patrols. The two become suspicious and, upon investigating, find Tucker has a secret talent/passion. - for the Phic Phight 2019.Although it takes away from ghost patrols, Danny and Sam are willing to sacrifice time and energy to support Tucker's interests. Even if it's something completely out of left field, like playing the saxophone.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley, Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson, Tucker Foley & Sam Manson
Series: Phic Phight 2019 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1679998
Comments: 1
Kudos: 51





	The Treble With Going Solo

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by Hauntedjoanns, aka thotvevo. They were on my team, though, so this fill was for half points. 
> 
> I love the idea of Tucker having a secret hobby that Danny and Sam support. He just strikes me as a Jazz player, you know? Maybe it's the hat.

**The Treble With Going Solo  
—**

"…You've been ditching to… jam out on the Saxophone?"

Tucker stopped abruptly, the last note going high and squawking from the horn's golden mouth. He jerked back and his eyes flew open to find his friends, Danny and Sam, standing before him with their hands on their hips.

"Your mom let us in," Sam said, answering the unspoken question on Tucker's mind.

Ice flooded through his veins. "I can explain—" he started, lowering his instrument.

Danny threw himself into one of the living room's comfy chairs opposite of Tucker, grinning wide. "Dude, that's _so cool,_ why didn't you tell us?"

"You're like a regular Louis Armstrong," Sam agreed, cocking her head to the side and shooting him a wry smile.

Danny blinked at her. "…Who?"

"…And that's why you flunked history." Sam rolled her eyes.

Tucker looked back and forth between them, the saxophone rigid between his fingers. "You're… not mad?" he managed to ask at last, sweating bullets. He figured, with how many times he'd ditched ghost hunting this month, they'd be furious. He'd made excuses left and right - homework, family meeting, dentist appointment—more homework…

They all had periods where balancing patrols and their social life got tricky, and everyone, even Danny, skipped out every so often. Usually it was only a day here and there, a week at most. Tucker knew his friends had started getting suspicious as of late. Probing questions. Side-eyed looks. Frequent texts from the battlefield.

They had every right to confront him, ask for his help. Team Phantom needed their resident techno geek. Tucker's 'vacation' wasn't without consequences; the disaster Technus'd caused last week was proof enough of that.

(The school had yet to re-plaster the gaping hole in the wall by the Computer Lab…)

"Well, I mean, I'm annoyed you didn't tell us," Sam raised an eyebrow. "And felt the need to lie."

"Yeah, Tuck, that week where Sam got really into slam poetry, we pulled all-nighters just to help her out." Danny reminded him, shrugging. "We all have lives. You could've told us."

"That was a week," Tucker argued. "I needed—more than that."

"We noticed." Sam said dryly.

Tucker's shoulders slumped. "Sorry," he apologized. "For lying, and for, well, not being there. I know it's been a rough few weeks without me. But I just… I _needed_ to practice. And I didn't feel like I could just, y'know, _ask_ for time away. I mean, in the grand scheme of things…" he sighed. "Music's not that important."

Sam and Danny traded looks.

"Yes it is," Danny said at last, surprising him.

Tucker raised his eyebrows. "No it's not," he said. "We're Team Phantom. We stop ghosts from attacking Amity Park, keeping our town and our neighbors in tact. It's a life or death situation."

"Yeah, and if _we_ don't make time for _us_ to do some living, then we're failing ourselves," Sam pointed out. "We're failing _each other._ "

"And I'm failing you guys by not being there." Tucker countered. "Unless you don't really need me after all?"

Both of them had nothing to say to that; Sam crossed her arms and Danny worked his jaw, scratching absently at a bandage wound around his bicep he'd earned from some battle earlier yesterday. They didn't need to say it - ghost hunting was easier with a trio than with a pair. They'd felt his loss, a fact that both comforted Tucker and stirred up his guilt.

"You wouldn't be doing this without a good reason." Danny said at last. "I know you wouldn't."

Tucker bit his lip. "Yeah." He _did_ have a good reason. He fidgeted with the saxophone keys, pressing and releasing along a scale to calm himself down. "…And I guess I also didn't tell you because it was kind of personal, too," he admitted at last.

"No kidding," Sam said, at last moving from where she leaned against the doorframe to cross the room, settling into the other comfy chair by Danny. "I had no idea you even played. Are you good? Know any classics?"

Tucker shrugged. It wasn't that easy to explain. "Do either of you even _like_ music?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Humpty Dumpty, NIN - my parents drag me to orchestra concerts at the Pavilion twice a month… not to mention, eight years of lessons." She pantomimed Fur Elise in the air.

Danny looked equally unimpressed. "The guitar in my room's not just for show," he pointed out.

"Sorry." God. Constantly apologizing. Blushing deeper, Tucker nodded. "Music's pretty important to me. Grandpap—my grandfather—he taught me when I was little." He adjusted the mouthpiece and reed just a little. "This is actually his sax, you know?"

"Oh yeah," Danny mused aloud, rubbing the back of his neck. "The anniversary of his death is coming up, isn't it?"

Sam shot a look between the two boys. She had never met Grandpap Foley.

"Yeah," Tucker agreed with a nod, suddenly feeling self conscious. He shifted in his chair. "That's actually why I'm doing this? Every year, he played at the local speakeasy downtown - the one that's been open since the Prohibition?"

"Shut up, _The Sly Cat?"_ Sam asked, sitting bolt upright. "That place is killer!"

Tucker smiled. "The year Grandpap died, it was right before his yearly scheduled show, so I asked if I could play in his stead. To honor him." Tucker's fingers twiddled up and down the keys, tapping silently to an old nostalgic tune. "They asked if I could come play again this year."

"Awesome!" Danny grinned.

"Yeah, but I'm so rusty—I'm out of practice. We've been so busy—"

"Say no more." Danny threw his hands up, sitting back in the chair. "We'll call if we run into an emergency, but until then this is your first priority."

"…You sure?"

Danny grinned. "If it's important to you, it's _important."_

Validation bloomed in Tucker's chest, filling him with warmth. He looked down, feeling silly. He should've come to them right out - of course they would've understood.

"If I ask," Tucker said, pulling off his beret and running his fingers across his wiry black hair. "…will you guys come to the show?"

"Done and done." Sam whipped out her phone, already making the reservations.

"Now come on Tuck, let's hear it," Danny said, getting comfortable. "Play something for us?"

Tucker smiled, glad to have his friends' support.

Taking a breath, Tucker closed his lips around the mouthpiece, and music filled the air.

**Author's Note:**

> Tucker needs more love from this Phandom tbh ;)


End file.
